When Augsburg sociology professor Tim Pippert circulated an email last spring inviting his students to apply for a research opportunity in the South Pacific, at least two of them thought of the trip as little more than a fantasy. Yet Briana Mitchell ’19 and Britta Andress ’19 applied anyway.

“It was very random for me,” Andress says about receiving that unsolicited email. But she was intrigued by the fact that whoever was chosen to go to Vanuatu, a nation comprised of about 80 islands that stretch 1,300 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean, could research whatever they wanted. She also knew she would have the whole summer to prepare.

“I was super pessimistic,” says Mitchell, who doubted she would be chosen because she was a “city girl, always doing city things. I’m not very outdoorsy. I’m a scaredy cat, and I’d heard there were spiders the size of dish plates. But when I got chosen and knew I was going with Britta, I figured she would take care of those spiders.”

Thanks to the Torstenson Scholars Program and the ongoing generosity of Mark Johnson ’75, a retired city planner and former president of Sonju Motors in Two Harbors, Minnesota, the two were about to embark on a life-changing, career-molding adventure. Since a chance encounter with the King of Tanna several years ago, Johnson has actively supported various initiatives on the island of Tanna, which was damaged by a cyclone in 2016. A solar project to supply electricity to the island’s 20,000 residents is currently underway.

Last September Mitchell and Andress, accompanied by Pippert and Johnson, flew nearly 30 hours to reach the island some call the “happiest place on earth.” For Mitchell, it conjured images of Jamaica, where her mother grew up. “When we got there, it had this paradise feel. Everything looked very good. The people were extremely happy, personable, and introduced themselves immediately.” As a black woman traveling abroad, she also noted, it was nice to be the one who fit in.

The Augsburg group including Mark Johnson ’75 and two locals who helped translate.

It wasn’t long, however, before the budding sociologists realized that solar lighting and happiness were not the topics that most interested them or their hosts. “Gender dynamics was a big issue. Behind this happiness were a lot of problems, so we decided to focus on the smaller ones and how they contributed to the larger ones,” Mitchell says. A female translator was secured so the island women could speak freely about their lifestyle and culture.

Life in Tanna is “drastically different. There is no agenda, and the pace is very laid back—they call it Tanna time. They don’t have an official economy and everything is free,” says Andress, describing a system known as cargo cult, where islanders depend on donations they believe will show up as needed.

The researchers conducted 26 interviews, exploring everything from medical care to food preparation to the ritual daily consumption of kava, a hallucinogenic beverage for men only. They questioned how solar lighting might impact women whose workdays were already long, and whether harsh, unsanitary childbirth conditions could be improved. They identified 13 themes in the study they will present at the Midwest Sociological Society conference in Chicago in April.

Briana and Britta doing research with the help of local Peace Corps volunteer Christy Kosak.

“Because of how fast it went and the amount of information we absorbed in those days, I now see everything through a more critical lens,” says Andress. Her experience has impacted how she interviews people, how she frames questions, and how she evaluates the research itself. “I see how vital it is, and I developed skills I knew I needed.”

Johnson understands completely. “I had the good fortune to participate in Joel Torstenson’s first Scandinavian Urban Studies term when I was a student at Augsburg. That experience was transformational, opening my eyes to a global context that has shaped my life,” says Johnson, who was named to Augsburg’s Board of Regents in 2018. “I’m interested in making sure that today’s Auggies have the same opportunities.”

“It was an amazing opportunity, and so kind of alumni to use their own time, effort, and funds to support students like me, who hadn’t done research or traveled abroad,” says Mitchell. Even simple things—like the gift of a six-foot-tall stick of sugar cane, which she hadn’t sampled since visiting Jamaica as a young teen—made the visit “a wonderful experience” that also prompted a closer connection with her mom. She hopes to return one day.

“It’s surreal that it even happened, and it’s something I will always reflect on,” she adds. “I was living my best life there. It feels like a dream, still.”

Nathan Schott in his senior year at Maple Grove High School (left). (L to R): Teri Schott, Alexandra Stoiaken ’13, and Chuck Schott at the 2011 brunch for Augsburg scholarship donors and recipients.

Nathan Schott ’13 spent only a short time on campus at Augsburg, but it was both active and memorable. The Maple Grove Senior High School graduate was an avid sports fan and Twins season ticket holder who wanted to major in English and become a sports writer. Because he also had muscular dystrophy and was confined to a wheelchair, one of his counselors recommended Augsburg for its ease and accessibility.

“We hadn’t heard too much about Augsburg, so we set up a tour. It was one of the first places we visited, and when we saw what sort of help Nathan would get, we thought this must be the place,” his mother, Teri, recalls. Augsburg’s CLASS (Center for Learning and Accessible Student Services) program is designed to help those students who need extra help, whether they are coping with autism, ADHD, mental illness, learning disabilities, or a chronic health condition like Nathan’s. The services are broad, ranging from securing appropriate accommodations to helping with time management, course selection, and any other challenges that might be better met with individual support.

“On a typical day, I drove him to school and dropped him off, then stayed on campus while he went to classes on his own,” Teri says. Nathan made friends. He used underground tunnels to get around. Helpers took notes in his classes and filed them where he could pick them up. The late “Pastor Dave” Wold took Nathan under his wing and made sure there was a parking space behind the church for the family car.

“It seemed like everyone wanted to assist him, and he felt like it was a good place to be,” says Nathan’s father, Chuck. “It wasn’t easy to go into that type of environment with that many students and be accepted for his disability, but he was very comfortable there. He was always eager to get to class in the morning, and he often went back at night for lectures and other functions. He enjoyed it.”

During spring break of his first year, however, Nathan, the oldest of the Schotts’ three children, contracted pneumonia, from which he never recovered. He died on April 1, 2010. His family received many sympathy notes from Nathan’s Augsburg friends and their parents. They grieved, but in their grief, they wanted to do more.

“We wanted to do something to honor Nathan and keep his memory alive,” says Teri. “My older sister, Mary Rose, actually got the ball rolling. We had planned a tour of Augsburg, and she set up a meeting with Doug Scott, Augsburg’s director of leadership gifts, without telling us.” After conferring with Scott, the Schotts decided to establish the Nathan R. Schott Scholarship Fund and donated the initial $25,000 to set it up. Since both Teri and Chuck are the youngest of seven siblings, reaching out to extended family for support made perfect sense.

“We are so pleased that the endowment has now gone over $100,000 and will continue to grow,” says Chuck. Designated for CLASS program participants, the scholarship fund has already helped eight students.

The couple, who moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee, two years ago, are grateful for the close connections they maintain with Augsburg. They named their new miniature dachshund puppy Auggie Doggie. They welcomed Scott for a visit to their new city. They have also attended past scholarship luncheons and met with some of the students they have helped.

“Hearing about past scholarship recipients and what they have achieved must give those students such a great feeling and sense of accomplishment,” Chuck notes. “For us as donors, it is so rewarding to learn of their successes. To be able to lessen their cost burden by providing financial aid means so much. We are very proud to be able to provide this scholarship to the students.”

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) connects students with new and existing summer-long research and scholarship on campus, across the U.S., and internationally. URGO also assists students applying for graduate school, professional school, and national fellowships and scholarships. In 2017–18, 88 students conducted research with a faculty member, 23 of which were sponsored by donors.

Through the URGO office, Augsburg’s annual Zyzzogeton Research Symposium on April 15 will showcase the work of over 80 undergraduate researchers in all academic disciplines.

For Gracia ’66 and John ’65 Luoma, the Augsburg Sesquicentennial marks not only a milestone for the University, but also a time to honor their own family legacy. These frequent donors have decided to celebrate by fully funding the John K. and Gracia Nydahl Luoma Endowed Scholarship with a $100,000 cash gift.

“We wanted to be proactive in our estate planning. We wanted to see the fruits of our legacy before we died,” says Gracia, noting how financial help is essential for today’s young people. The scholarship will go to an undergraduate student who demonstrates financial need, academic achievement, and a commitment to vocational service, preferably in the Christian ministry, education, psychology, or medical fields.

“Emphasizing vocation for service has always been part of Augsburg’s vision,” John points out.

And Augsburg, adds Gracia, has long been “the family business, so to speak.” Born in Minneapolis to the Nydahl family, she recalls frequent outings to Augsburg events as a young child. Her grandfather Johannes, who emigrated from Norway in 1845, graduated from both Augsburg College and Augsburg Seminary, which he attended from 1883 to 1891. He became a professor of history and Norwegian before becoming Augsburg’s head librarian in 1920 and was also a member of the Augsburg Quartette, as was his son, Harold. Johannes and his wife, Tabitha, had six children, all of whom followed his footsteps, as have many other descendants. In fact, Augsburg recognized this “formative family” with a Distinguished Service Award in 2004.

“That I would attend Augsburg was never a question,” says Gracia, a math major who forged a career in computer science. Nor was it a question that she, as well as her prospective husband, would rank service high among their career goals. “Even in the business world, you can have a sense of service in vocation. You don’t have to be in a formal ministry to serve God and serve Christ,” she says.

John Luoma, the boy she first met in Luther League and later dated and married while in college, learned of Augsburg through his affiliation with Trinity Lutheran Church. In his quest to become a pastor, he never considered going elsewhere. Fully committed and active on campus, he was elected student body president in his senior year. After receiving his Ph.D. in theology, he served as a college and seminary professor and Lutheran parish pastor for more than 40 years.

“Augsburg was very formative for us in those years. It built on the values we’d had as young people, strengthening them, testing us, and preparing us very well for our vocations,” Gracia says.

The couple had two sons, both of whom also chose service vocations. Aaron, who died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart defect in 2015, was an occupational therapy assistant, international traveler, and frequent volunteer who worked with immigrants, refugees, and hospice patients. Jason is a clinical psychologist in Portland, Oregon. Neither had children.

“Our son is fine financially, and we have no grandchildren, which started me thinking: I would like to leave a legacy. Even on my mother’s side, there was always a commitment to service for others,” says Gracia.

The Luomas raised their family in Connecticut and Ohio before moving to their current residence in Lady Lake, Florida, but they return to Minnesota every summer to escape the heat. Now retired, they are able to visit Augsburg regularly, attending their class reunions and the annual Nydahl cousin reunion, usually timed to coincide with homecoming. They have reacquainted themselves with the current administration and reaffirmed their confidence in Augsburg’s vision. While the neighborhood and student population may have changed in recent years, the basic values have not.

“A lot of schools do not bring up their religious connection. I like that Augsburg is still proud of being a Lutheran college without being pushy about it,” says John, who has served on the ELCA Board of Education. Adds Gracia: “It has a unique place among Lutheran colleges. It does a lot to reach out to businesses and the community, and to make that connection between education and serving in an urban environment.”

The Sesquicentennial Scholarship is a new, unrestricted scholarship created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Augsburg University. This fund will support students in financial need.

Why endowments?

You’ll see how your contribution makes a difference in the learning and life trajectory of real students in the Augsburg community. As a donor, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the scholarship’s recipients during Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial festivities in 2019–20.

Your gift today is a way you can stay connected to Augsburg throughout your lifetime. Donors will also be recognized on campus on the Sesquicentennial Scholarship Fund donor wall.

Celebrate the Sesquicentennial by supporting students

Over 200 donors have already contributed more than $110,000 to the Sesquicentennial Scholarship.

All donors who give receive annual reports on the overall value of the fund, contributions, market growth, and scholarship recipients.

Early contributions like yours will spark more potential for Augsburg students, the community, and the enduring legacy of inspired education. Make a gift to the Sesquicentennial Scholarship at augsburg.edu/giving.

The difference between college then and college now is a key factor that motivates Tom Peterson ’69 to honor his father by contributing regularly and often to the Clifford A. Peterson Scholarship endowment fund.

“A small scholarship throws off enough to buy books. I would like to get to where I can make a material dent in someone’s tuition,” Tom Peterson says. He figures it takes about a million dollars to fund an endowment that pays for one person’s full scholarship each year, and he speaks with a deep knowledge of finance. As former chief investment officer for the Good Samaritan Society, he was in charge of two privately held mutual funds and managed $1.5 billion in capitalization.

He was not, however, an academic star. “I was an extraordinarily ordinary high school and college student, with average grades at best,” Tom recalls. He grew up in Richfield and initially enrolled at Bemidji State University, which invited him to play on its tennis team. He studied hard there but again earned only average grades, and the tennis team’s mediocre performance coupled with the frigid climate convinced him to move closer to home and enroll at Augsburg, his father’s alma mater.

“My father always held Augsburg in high regard. He used to drag us kids along to basketball, football, and baseball games,” Tom says of Clifford Peterson ‘49, whose successful career included marketing stints at Standard Oil and SuperAmerica as well as nursing home administration in later years. Tom’s younger brother, Jim Peterson ’78, was inducted into the Augsburg Hall of Fame for his prowess in both baseball and hockey.

At Augsburg, Tom majored in finance and sociology and played for two years on winning tennis teams, which placed second in the conference. (His son, Christopher Olson ’91, later lettered four times in tennis at Augsburg.) Tom also graduated in four years with no debt, an accomplishment that seems impossible today. That was college then, when tuition was $1200 a year.

“I put myself through Augsburg, had an apartment off campus, and paid for it all myself,” he says. “I had one of the best jobs a student could have at that time—I drove truck.” He made deliveries throughout the state, working 30 hours a week during school and 60 hours a week during summers and breaks. When he graduated and got his first job as an accountant at Honeywell, he almost had to take a pay cut (but got to work a shorter, 40-hour week).

Even though he would sometimes come home too tired at night to study, he found time to connect with and admire his sociology professor, Joel Torstenson, and several adjunct business professors, one of whom he later mentored in the business world.

“I had good teachers, and they were fun people to be around. Here’s the thing: I felt comfortable there,” Tom says. Now retired and living in Edina, Minnesota, where long walks with his dog have replaced tennis, he recalls, with fondness, those college days in the past. He also remains committed to ensuring that students will be able to meet the financial challenges and enjoy the faculty support at Augsburg in the future.

She called herself Sandy Simpson from Spicer back then, and her journey from aspiring Willmar High School student to generous Augsburg University donor was as lively and adventurous as Sandra Simpson Phaup ’64 is today.

Her college-educated parents were trained as teachers, so it was no surprise that Phaup planned to go to college. But her first-choice school cost too much, and her enrollment at Lutheran Bible Institute was short-lived. Her goal of becoming a nurse landed her on the Augsburg campus, where she got a small scholarship and found a welcoming home she had not anticipated.

Imagine her surprise when a professor in the theater department allowed her to keep her bicycle in the old theater. “I found living in the city a little confining after being in the country, so she gave me a key,” recalls Phaup. “And I had Professor Philip Thompson for art, which I loved.”

Slowly but surely, she found her way. Though she had made a pact with her parents to earn a nursing degree, her sophomore chemistry class “felt like they were all speaking Russian—I never grasped it,” she says. So without consulting mom and dad, she transferred out, signing up for a 17th-century British literature class instead. English and teaching became her major and art her minor, but she also pursued an interest in Norwegian language and culture sparked by the Norwegian grandparent who moved in with the family while she was growing up. She read Nobel Prize writer Knut Hamsun and Ole Edvard Rölvaag’s Giants in the Earth. She carried a small notebook to record Norwegian words.

Her teachers picked up on her ongoing fascination. “When art topics were assigned, we didn’t get to pick. My friends got Monet and Renoir and I got Edvard Munch. I thought, ‘what am I going to do with this German expressionist?’ Two days before the paper was due, I hadn’t even started. I rode my bike to the Minneapolis library, checked the card catalogue, and found out he was Norwegian! I was so excited I did nothing but read about him,” she says. “It was life-changing. Augsburg professors know their students really well.”

As a sophomore, Phaup asked a Norwegian family friend in Spicer to help her move to Norway for a year, but her parents insisted that she finish college first. As a senior, she was registering for classes when a friend reported that their English professor had suggested she apply for a Fulbright scholarship. “What’s that?” was her first response. But she applied, was accepted, and arrived in Norway—“so focused and full of myself”—the following year. There she met relatives she hadn’t known existed as well as her husband-to-be, a Fulbright scholar pursuing an economics Ph.D.

At home in Arlington, Virginia, since 1976, Phaup earned a master’s degree and taught English and art for 30 years in England, Ohio, and Salem, Virginia, where her lively embrace of all study topics, from Bob Dylan to Allen Ginsberg, made her a favorite among students who still invite her to reunions. As a Kennedy Center teaching artist, she is occasionally invited to lead teacher workshops that integrate visuals arts and writing.

“I feel like I’ve really been blessed,” Phaup says, “and I thank Augsburg for making that happen. That’s why I have been donating every year.” She describes her gifts as an “offering of thanksgiving for what my experience was,” although she realizes that today’s students will have quite different experiences. “Augsburg is thriving where it is, serving a unique population, and I very much support the notion of serving that community,” she adds. “Augsburg is doing important work in the world.”

He played football. She ran cross-country. Although they first met as freshman members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Mark Moksnes ’79 and Pam (Hanson) Moksnes ’79 were focused on their studies and busy with their sports. He was a sociology and social work major with an eye on the seminary. She was a psychology major and biology minor, considering dental school.

The two started dating in senior year and married soon after college, although neither knew for sure where their paths would take them. But they did know that Augsburg had provided a strong foundation, not only in faith-based education, but also in community service and outreach. Perhaps they knew, too, that their allegiance would make charitable giving essential to their lives, allowing them to share those benefits with new generations.

Mark built a business career as a sales and marketing executive with Delta Dental and Anthem. A postgraduate financial planning education launched Pam into a career that combined financial management and charitable giving, providing expertise that served others well in her work with Thrivent Financial and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Now parents of three college-educated children and five grandchildren, the couple has donated to Augsburg causes throughout their lives, most recently giving an unrestricted endowment to Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign.

“We feel called to support Augsburg’s mission, just as we always have,” says Mark. Earlier in their marriage, however, giving to Augsburg meant going out on a limb, a scary prospect for a young family. “We didn’t know where the money was going to come from, or how. It’s amazing what happens. God just provided. Those are his resources, and we put our trust in him regarding that. We just absolutely love being able to share.”

“That we have continued to be so engaged with Augsburg has enriched our lives,” adds Pam, a Board of Regents member since 2013. Their daughter, Laura Moksnes ‘06, earned a psychology degree at Augsburg and a Master’s degree at Pepperdine University, later returning to Augsburg as an adjunct professor.

Pam’s professional experience in charitable giving offers a valuable perspective. What kind of gift is best? “Whatever the donor wishes to do is the right thing, of course,” she says. “Giving can be so joyful for the giver. People who have been touched by Augsburg make these connections in all kinds of ways.”

While some choose to address immediate needs, Pam and Mark believe that an unrestricted endowment can be even more gratifying and beneficial in the long run. “We all know that in today’s world, with all the political and financial changes in our economy, the challenges to universities and other organizations are substantial. A strong endowment helps ensure that Augsburg can respond to these changes and stay ahead of the curve in planning,” she says. “I feel like it’s the right thing for us.”

Raising awareness about the impact of unrestricted giving is important as well. Since no one can predict the future, Augsburg needs a strong, solid financial base to adapt and serve, to fulfill its mission no matter what needs may arise at any given time. “Ensuring that our foundation stays in place will also serve the community, so tomorrow’s leaders will leave Augsburg ready to serve the world in an ethical, moral, and faith-based way,” says Pam. “That is the Augsburg mission in action.”

Ask Nancy Mackey Mueller ’85 about her family’s planned giving history and philosophy, and her answer will be succinct: “We’re all in.”

Indeed they are, for reasons that both she and her husband, Paul Mueller ’84 articulate clearly. Their commitment goes deep. Paul served on the Augsburg Board of Regents for 12 years and currently chairs Great Returns: Augsburg’s Sesquicentennial Campaign. Nancy was named to the Board in 2018. They have donated often over many years, including a previous bequest to support the Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion, and most recently designated a planned gift to create the Paul ’84 and Nancy Mackey ’85 Mueller Presidential Scholarship, valued at $1,000,000.

“We both felt that our experience at Augsburg gave us the keys to success for our future,” explains Nancy. Their college experience was not only positive but also rigorous, preparing them for challenging graduate work and distinguished careers. “We were both encouraged in different ways. As the only woman in the physics department at the time, I was always very much supported. I never felt I had to prove myself any more than the guys in my major, and that gave me the confidence to stretch myself.”

Coming to Augsburg

Nancy became a structural engineer, earning a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland and helping the U.S. Navy design submarines before eventually becoming a physics and chemistry teacher at Mayo High School in Rochester. She had followed her father and her aunts to Augsburg, where she first met her future husband when she was a nervous sophomore tutoring juniors and seniors in physics. He remembers being smitten; she remembers just trying to get through the intimidating hour. Dating came later, but the scene had been set.

“We have a deep affection for Augsburg. It’s where we met,” Paul says. “We also appreciate the values of the institution—its academic rigor, its vision, its commitment to the Cedar-Riverside community. Augsburg transforms lives.”

Paul had already won a scholarship to the University of Minnesota when a visit to Augsburg’s campus altered his trajectory. Impressed by the warmth, welcome, and undivided attention he received that day, especially from chemistry professors, he chose Augsburg. Now-retired chemistry professor John Holum became his mentor and inspiration. Paul went on to earn his MD and MPH at Johns Hopkins University and is now an internist and professor of medicine and biomedical ethics at Mayo Clinic and the regional vice president of the Mayo Clinic Health System—Southwest Wisconsin.

What Sets Augsburg Apart

Both Muellers have fond recollections of Augsburg support and inclusion. “It felt like family. Somebody was always looking out for you. If you missed class, the professor would see you later and ask where you were. That was one of the things that set Augsburg apart, then and now. No matter who you were, or what interests or inclinations you had, you felt very welcomed,” Nancy says.

That Augsburg “vigorously retained its Lutheran heritage while at the same time welcoming everyone is very important and appealing to us. It’s the idea that we are called to love and serve each other, without regard to personal characteristics such as race, religion, or sexual orientation,” adds Paul. “In today’s world, it seems like the focus is more on what separates us than what brings us together.”

He also notes that these days, more than half of the student population are people of color. “It didn’t look that way when we were there, and I love that about it,” he says.

Nancy points to the unusual number of programs designed to help students with special needs and talents, from StepUP to URGO. “As parents, we’ve been on many college campus tours, and nowhere else offers the programs that Augsburg does,” she says. “It’s a unique place, and we so believe in their mission.”

Their oldest son, Luke, majored in math and history at Augsburg before pursuing a graduate degree in statistics from Harvard. His mother notes that his presidential scholarship made a big difference to him, both financially and by providing opportunities he may not otherwise have had. Endowing such a scholarship for future generations made perfect sense.

“Removing cost as a barrier to education—that was our intent,” Paul says. “We very much wanted Augsburg to be able to attract top-notch students without regard to expense. To have brilliant, talented, gifted students be able to come to Augsburg without having to worry about how to pay for their college education? Now that is changing lives.”

When Bruce Olson ’71 was a youngster in Brooklyn Center, he was not sure what he wanted to be when he grew up. He was sure of a couple of things, though. Active in the Lutheran church, he knew he wanted to attend a Lutheran college, and he preferred being in the city, where ‘60s activism meant things were happening. He also knew that his rural extended family would support him fully, although they could provide little more than love and encouragement.

“I came from a family of modest means. I needed a lot of help,” says Olson. He was grateful to receive an Augsburg legacy scholarship but wished he could have met his benefactors. “I wondered about the history of it, but I never really knew,” he recalls.

The financial cushion served him well. He participated in student government and played all four years on the golf team, which won both conference and state championships. He changed majors four times, abandoning religion after nearly flunking his first theology class, contemplating a future as a high school math teacher, succumbing to the inverse multiple-choice question challenges in his sociology exams, and, finally, plugging a gap one semester with an accounting class.

“I loved it,” he says.

Accounting became his major and business his forte. Right out of college, he worked for a small mobile home finance company, then Josten’s, then a series of successful entrepreneurial ventures in various fields, from insurance and computer services to light manufacturing and retail. He retired at 45 and moved to Florida to play golf, including with such luminaries as Arnie Palmer, but 10 years of retirement sufficed. Now a Kansas City resident, he is back at it, officially the owner and president of the HRS Group.

“I love the challenge of taking a new idea or a new product and making it work,” he says.

Olson also loves the idea of establishing the Olson Peterson Wiggins Scholarship. It is named for his family, including his grandfather Olson, who owned the five-and-dime back in Afton, Iowa; his grandfather Peterson, the town mechanic and truck and tractor repair whiz in Tracy, Minnesota, where he was born; and his near and dear great uncle Walt Wiggins, Walnut Grove’s town barber, who offered shaves and haircuts there along the banks of Plum Creek. And it will grant $25,000 to someone like him.

Olson was delighted to meet the first recipient, Nick Thompson, when the initial $5,000 installment was awarded. “He’s real nice, an athlete who plays baseball and a reasonably good student who aspires to become a physical therapist. But who knows? I told him I hoped he would be lucky enough to hold onto that dream but reminded him that it would be crazy to guarantee it.”

Olson hopes, too, that Thompson will enjoy the same Augsburg benefits he found: a good education, both academic and social, and important lessons about how to conduct one’s life. He also points to Augsburg’s growth and progress, demonstrated in part by the much-expanded economics and business department in the impressive Hagfors Center for Science, Business, and Religion.

“It’s a pay-it-forward sort of story,” Olson says. “I was lucky to come from a great family, get a good education, and have some success in life. Now I’m finding a way to honor my family by honoring somebody else in the same situation.”